Any discussion of the prior art throughout the specification should in no way be considered as an admission that such prior art is widely known or forms part of common general knowledge in the field.
In the conduction of Maze-type procedures, an ablation catheter is used to ablate heart tissue to attempt to clear heart arrhythmias. Generally, a dot ablation is made and this is repeated by re-positioning a tip, ablation electrode of an ablation catheter. This is an extremely time-consuming process. In addition, dot ablation may leave gaps in the lesions, which may again require re-positioning and repeating the procedure. If a clinician could limn longer lesions, fewer manipulations would be required. This would reduce the time to conduct the procedure, which would be beneficial for all concerned. Longer electrodes and multiple electrodes have been considered for radiofrequency ablation but coagulum tends to form on the electrodes. In addition, the energy field from long electrodes is not always uniform and this may cause discontinuities in the lesion. Furthermore, the temperature of the ablation electrodes, as well as the tissue being treated, needs to be carefully maintained to ensure that it does not result in excessive ablation of the tissue.